Messaging

Chelsea Clinton Stayed Unfailingly on Message at the City Harvest Gala

Have you noticed the change in Chelsea Clinton? Many have, from Variety to the New York Times to Politico to this very publication. Everyone seems to agree that Clinton, no longer stumping for mom and dad, has come into her own voice (the Timescalls her Twitter persona of late “more sarcastic” and “fiesty”). Whether that means she is planning to run for office or not remains debatable (although she swearsshe’s not), but at the City Harvest Gala on Tuesday night, she was all business about only the matter at hand.

Clinton was accepting the Award for Commitment on behalf of the Clinton Foundation. She and the foundation regularly host a Day of Action with City Harvest to repackage “rescued food,” in the non-profit’s parlance.

That night, Clinton spoke of coming to the organization during Hurricane Sandy relief efforts; she spoke of volunteering for it since; and she urged the night’s guests to volunteer in the future. Before thanking the bigwigs in charge and the people on the front lines, the she concluded, “We say one in four children in our city are food insecure. I think it’s important to realize that’s hundreds of thousands of kids. Those of us who are parents shouldn’t be the only ones who find that unconscionable.” See? Unfailingly on message. And only one dinner guest shouted that she should run for something while Clinton took the stage.

Ja Rule, on the other hand, strayed slightly from the night’s message, but did stay faithful to the Ja Rule message, as is his wont. During the auction portion of the gala, when Geoffrey Zakarian and Marcela Valladolid of Food Network’s The Kitchen were peddling a private dinner for 10, the lot was barely breaking $50,000. Ja Rule hopped on stage and sweetened the pot by offering to mix drinks at the party.That’s not all. At Bethenny Frankel’s urging from the table below, he sang a couple lines from “I’m Real,” his 2006 hit with Jennifer Lopez. Just hearing that gravely voice sing “The way you walk, the way you move” was nothing less than transportive. We were all but for a moment living 15 years ago instead of in the current national nightmare. A little-known senator named Barack Obama was becoming a little more well-known. T.R.L. still had top billing on MTV. Nelly Furtado’s career had promise.And then, reality: “If y’all don’t know who I am, my name is Ja Rule, and I have had a couple hit records back in the day,” he said. Oh, right. It’s been awhile. It’s 2017. Got it. Anyway, the Food Network lot broke the hundred-thousand-thousand dollar mark on the bid. Sometimes straying from message pays.

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